Fried Mac & Cheese Bites

Hey everyone, I’ve gotten a couple of requests for a mac and cheese recipe. Today I’m bringing you my simple stove-top macaroni and cheese recipe. This is my go-to whenever I’m making a quick dinner and need a yummy side dish. This recipe is creamy, cheesy, and so easy to make.

In my recipe I use pepper-jack, as well as sharp cheddar, but you can substitute any cheese that you like. It’s pretty much the first step in many baked mac and cheese recipes. Usually you would pour this mac into a baking pan, top it with more shredded cheese, and then put it in the oven.

Anyway, I had some mac leftover when I made this, so I decided to make Fried Mac & Cheese Bites. If you’ve ever been to Cheesecake Factory, they have something similar on their appetizer menu. These are a lot of fun to make, and they are DELICIOUS, so prepare for them to go really fast.

If you happen to have some leftover macaroni and cheese, go ahead and skip the first part of this recipe. If not, go ahead and cook about 2.5 cups of elbow macaroni.

Next you’re going to make your cheese sauce. You are combining milk, flour, and butter to basically make a roux which is the base for many sauces.

You add your cheese to that mixture and stir until its creamy. Please make sure you watch all of your ingredients while they are on the stove, because it is not hard to burn this sauce.

One year for Thanksgiving I was in charge of making the mac and cheese, and I attempted to make cheese sauce. I ended up completely burning it, but because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone I thought I could pass it off anyway. I completely ruined the entire dish, because the burnt taste was overwhelming. So keep that in mind LOL.

After the sauce is done, you’re going to stir it into your cooked macaroni, and that’s it.

Moving on to the Fried Mac & Cheese Bites, the first thing you’re going to do is scoop or spoon the macaroni into 1 inch balls.

You’re going to drop them on a wax-lined baking pan, and freeze them for 2 hours or until they are firm.

When you take the balls out of the freezer, roll them between your palms to get a more rounded shape. This is a step that I forgot to do 🙁

After that, you’re going to combine Italian breadcrumbs, garlic powder, and pepper in a bowl.

You’re then going to dip the balls into a mixture of egg and water, and then coat them with the breadcrumbs.

Once your mac and cheese balls are coated, you’re going to deep fry them in batches for about 2-5 minutes or until they are golden brown on all sides.

Serve these babies with some marinara sauce, or you can do like I did and use some Prego.